"My parents probably hoped that I would become​at least a good plumber or something."

PASCAL LEO CORMIER

Sweet Nightmares: Where did this all start? What were your artistic beginnings?

Pascal: I was drawing inside the walls of my beloved mother's uterus. I am still wondering who got crayons up in there.

SN: Were you always exposed to art? What made you want to draw and paint?

P: Art, or music for the matter, were never a choice or decision for me, if something made noise, my instinct was to make music with it, and if I found something that made colours, I just made colours with it, and it never occurred to me to stop this insane behavior.

SN: What about school, were you ever the kid who dozed off during class work to draw on the empty areas of the assignment?

P: I did, all the way to high school. I am a proud high school drop out. To me, the public school system is the fast food of education. Intelligence is not about what someone can make you learn by heart through repetition, it is about how you register and process the information in your brain, it is how you apply critical analysis to any given issue, and wisdom is not gained by taking notes, it is gained with tears and blood. Pain.

​If you have intelligence, you will turn your pain into wisdom, if you were stripped of your intelligence, or were hypnotized, you will turn your pain into a catastrophe. The world burns now because the world is hypnotized. End of rant.

SN: Did you have a crush on a teacher as a kid? Did you ever use art to try to impress them?

P: That may be the weirdest question I ever got in an interview. I don't recall. I remember having crushes on babysitters, but I mostly liked girls my own age in school, and drew them cute things. On the teacher's board, I would draw cartoons with boogers coming out of their noses.

SN: When did you know you wanted to chase after art as a career? Was it hard for others to accept this, such as your parents?

P: I'm not sure, when I started exhibiting and selling works I guess? I don't remember the last time I wondered about what I wanted to do for a living when I grew up, I just lived most of my life doing what my soul pushed me to do, which was art, music and writing. My parents probably realized that they had a little weirdo in their hands very early on, so they most likely knew that I would never be a Doctor or a Lawyer. My parents probably hoped that I would become at least a good Plumber or something.

SN: How did you develop your style? What are your influences?

P: Very early on I was into drawing cartoons and Nintendo characters, in my teen years I got into skateboarding and punk rock, so skateboard logos and album covers became my influences.

​In terms of Artists that touched my heart as a teenager, I would say that DaVinci, Dali and Bosch would take the cake.

SN: What is the typical process like for a Pascal Leo Cormier piece?

P: It starts with an idea turned into an image in my head, then a sketch, then a color study if needed, and on to the canvas or wood. That is probably the same process as most figurative Artists, I suppose.​

SN: What are you currently working on?

P: I have a duo show at ABYSS Gallery in Montreal in November, had a piece at Hive Gallery in July and I will have a piece in a group show at the 63 Bluxome Street Gallery in San Francisco in September. In August, I curated theInternational 12 x 12 Group Exhibition.

SN: Recently, you've blended a more child-hand crafted aesthetic, such as in your MONSTERS​ series, something that almost represents the textures of crayons and paints from a young artist, meshed with your usual style. What was the idea behind squaring them off with each other this way?

P: Having the child inhabit his or her own universe. It all starts at childhood, and I like to tell stories through kids or kid-story-like scenarios.

SN: Your body of work is incredibly strong and consistent. How do you stay creatively active?

P: Thank you kindly. Being creative has never been a problem for me, last year I painted a sketch from 2009, so I have enough written and sketched out ideas to last me a life time. The issue is often the approach, and how to make new ideas fit with old ones that I still want to make.​

SN: Do you have your own studio?

P: I share a studio space with a few Artist friends.

SN: Do you find it difficult to let go of a piece once sold?

P: No. I did for my very first few sales many years ago, but not anymore. Now I can not wait for someone to buy it out of my hands and move on to new things.

SN: If you could grab a drink with any great, non-living artist, whom would you choose?

P: Hieronymus Bosch.

SN: You also play music with Eye Ocean. Do you find your approach to music to be similar to your approach to visual art?​P: It is similar, but the drive is often different. With my visual art, I feel the need to show you something, to get this image out of my chest, while with my music, I find that it is a lot more emotional, sometimes a lot more personal. I find that I play music mostly in big waves of melancholy, which occur at least once a day. ​

SN: Your work is undoubtedly dreamy. Have you ever gotten ideas for a piece, such as characters, colour or even composition, in your dreams?

P: It has happened before, but I try to never remember my dreams, because every time I wake up with a dream, it troubles me for days. I much prefer waking up without a memory of what just happened.